PREFACE. 



are only established for the country schools, and serve 

 only to spread agricultural instruction. I shall, there- 

 fore, show in the proper place, that a great Swedish 

 school garden contains less means of culture than a 

 small one on the Schwab system, as it is called in Austria. 

 It must, however, be granted that Sweden is already be- 

 ginning to share in such fruits as I wish to show are the 

 after results of the school gardens upon life everywhere. 

 Sweden had a painful experience in the beginning of 

 the enterprise, as the teachers of that time were not 

 taught in their seminaries how to carry them on. Nothing 

 now stands in the way of their universal spread in Sweden. 



At the Vienna Exposition in 1873, the author saw 

 the magnificent garden-plans which have beautified so 

 many normal institutes in France. He was assured by 

 a very cultivated French school inspector that France 

 already has many school gardens. I acknowledge that 

 I was not previously in a position to know any thing spe- 

 cial about school gardens in France ; for my residence 

 in Paris was before I issued this pamphlet. The French, 

 with their taste and their peculiar talents for gardening 

 of all kinds, have also the gift of contributing a rich 

 share to the formation of the idea of the school gardens. 



The school garden needs to-day in every country only 

 some advocates of intellect and organizing talent to be 

 before the end of the century participated in by the 

 commonwealth of European nations. In my view it is 

 nothing but a not yet recognized, yet precious inheri- 

 tance of the eighteenth century. 



In Austria the idea of the school garden has already 

 become so popular that in building new school-houses 

 the rule now is to appropriate one room for the future 

 school garden. 



